man(1)man(1)Nameman - displays manual pages online
Syntaxman-k keyword...
man-f page_title...
man [ options ] [ -roff_options ]... [ section ] page_title...
man [ options ] [ section page_title... ]...
/usr/bin/man [ option ] [ section ] page_title...
/usr/bin/man [ options ] [ section page_title... ]...
Description
There are two commands: and For most users, is the default command.
The command
which man
shows you which command is the default. The recommended default is
Both the commands provide online displays of specified reference pages.
The /usr/ucb/man Command.
The basic function of this command is to provide online displays of
reference pages. You can use options, however, to direct the command
to display one line summaries of reference pages which contain specific
keywords, to display one line summaries of specific reference pages, to
use special formatting options when preparing the reference page for
display or printing, and to search alternate reference page directories
for specified reference pages.
If an option is not used, the command formats and displays one or more
specified reference pages. If there are multiple reference pages which
match a specified name, only the first matching reference page is dis‐
played. If there are multiple matches in a section for a specified
name, the matching page in the first alphabetically occurring subsec‐
tion is displayed.
If you specify the command with a section argument, the command looks
in that section of the reference pages for the specified page titles.
A section consists of a number in the range 0 to 9, optionally followed
by an alphanumeric subsection, or section can be the name `local',
`new', `old', or `public'. Numbers 0 and 9 are non-standard. If a is
omitted, the command searches all sections of the reference pages.
The command displays commands (both standard and local) over subrou‐
tines in system libraries, and displays the first occurrence it finds,
if any. If Section 1 is specified, the sections n, l, and o are also
searched, if they exist.
The section and page_title... arguments can be paired, so that multi‐
ple pages can be searched for in a section, and multiple sections can
be searched for a page or pages.
All displays are directed to standard out, unless redirected, or unless
the option is specified. If the standard output is a teletype device,
the command completes the following: pipes the output through the com‐
mand using the option -s to eliminate unnecessary blank lines and
invokes the command using the option -s to display a screen at a time.
If a specified reference page is not already formatted, but the source
file exists, the command preprocesses the file through the command.
The command next pipes the output to the command, or to the command if
the option was specified, using the macros package. If the output was
directed to the command, the output is then piped through the postpro‐
cessor, then directed to standard out. If the appropriate directory
exists, the formatted display is saved there.
The /usr/bin/man Command
The command performs the same basic function as the command, that is,
formats and displays or prints specified reference pages. It does not
provide all the functions of and there are some differences in common
functions.
The command searches for the specified reference pages, and formats and
displays all reference pages matching the specified names. If no sec‐
tion is specified, all sections 1 through 8 are searched. In the case
of multiple matches, the display order is in numeric section order, and
ASCII subsection order within a section.
All displays are directed to standard out, unless redirected, or unless
an option is used which requests processing through the command. If a
option was not specified, then the standard output is to a teletype
device. If the standard output is a teletype device, the pipes the
output through the postprocessor, then directs the output to standard
out.
The command does not use preformatted files. It searches only the
directories for source files.
If a specified file exists, it is always preprocessed through the com‐
mand.
If an option is not used, the command formats and displays specified
reference pages using the command.
If multiple options are specified, only the last one is executed,
except that multiple roff_options are accepted and executed.
Options
/usr/ucb/man Options
The following options are recognized only by the command. Note that
the options and do not have the same functionality as the corresponding
options.
- Squeeze multiple blank lines from output.
-f Display one line summaries of each page title specified on
the command line.
-k Display one line summaries of each reference page that con‐
tains the specified keyword or keywords.
-P manpath Search the specified manpath directory instead of
-s Remove unnecessary blank lines.
-t Phototypesets the output through the command.
This option requires the installation of the command, which
is unsupported. When the -t option is specified, the out‐
put is directed, by -t option, to the printer or typesetter
specified by the PRINTER environment variable. PRINTER
must be set to a printer which is capable of handling out‐
put files. The default is the lp printer (see description
of the -t option for more information).
/usr/bin/man Options
The following options are recognized by the command. Note that the
options and do not have the same functionality as the corresponding
options.
-roff_options
Inserts the specified roff_option in front of the -man
option when the appropriate *roff text formatter is called
(the other options determine which *roff formatter is
called). Multiple roff_options can be specified. If a
null value is specified, the results are unpredictable.
-e | -et | -te
Preproceses the display with the command, then performs the
same steps as the option.
This option requires the installation of the and commands,
which are unsupported.
-ek | -ke Preproceses the display with the command, then performs the
same steps as the option.
This option requires the installation of the and commands,
which are unsupported.
-k Formats the display through the command, using troff's
option, then directs the output to the command.
This option requires the installation of the and commands,
which are unsupported.
-n Formats the display through the command. This is the
default.
-ne | -en Preproceses the display with the command, then performs the
same steps as the option.
This option requires the installation of the command, which
is unsupported.
-t Photypesets the output through the command.
This option requires the installation of the command, which
is unsupported.
-w Shows where the specified reference pages are located, rel‐
ative to the directory.
Restrictions
The reference pages are reproducible on phototypesetters or on hardcopy
devices. However, some devices do not properly handle special charac‐
ters which causes information to be lost.
Some options require the installation of unsupported software. Use of
these options is at your own risk.
Options which call the or commands will generally fail when used with
the ULTRIX reference pages, because any ULTRIX reference pages which
use commands were preprocessed through the text formatter before being
packaged for shipment to you. text preprocessors generally report
numerous errors when attempts are made to reprocess files a second time
through an text preprocessor.
Both and commands to the directory before searching for and formatting
files. Some reference pages assume that this happens. Therefore, an
attempt to format some reference pages manually with a text formatter
may fail if you are not sitting in the directory.
/usr/ucb/man Restrictions
If a specified reference page exists in the appropriate directory, but
there is no appropriate directory, you will not be able to scroll back‐
wards in the display.
The man directories for sections n, l, o, p, 0 and 9 are optional
directories. They must be created by the system administrator.
The directories are not required to exist. They must be created by the
system administrator. This is generally done through the command.
Examples
/usr/ucb/man Examples
The following examples all assume the use of the default command:
The following example shows how to locate reference pages containing
the keyword `graph':
% man-k graph
The following example shows how to display the reference page:
% man 1g graph
The following example shows how to display reference pages:
% man 1 plot 3 plot
The following example shows how to display and reference pages:
% man 1 chmod chown 2 chmod chown
The following example shows how to display a reference page in the
directory. In order to locate the reference page here, it must have
the file name so its reference page title would be
% man local test
To locate the reference pages in Section 1:
% man 1 test 1sh5 test
If you have a directory which contains subdirectories, which also con‐
tain reference pages, then the following example shows how to display a
reference page located somewhere in a subdirectory of
% man-P /usr/local games
/usr/bin/man Examples
The following example shows how to display reference pages:
% /usr/bin/man chmod
The above displays all the reference pages from all sections of the
installed reference pages.
The following example shows how to display all the reference pages in
Section 1:
% /usr/bin/man 1 test
The following example shows how to locate all the reference pages:
% /usr/bin/man -w test
The following example shows how to locate all the reference pages in
Section 3:
% /usr/bin/man -w 3 intro
The following example displays the reference page with a starting page
number of 10.
% /usr/bin/man -n10 1 manFiles
The default command.
The alternate command.
These directories contain the online reference pages which
are divided into sections 1 through 8, n, l, o, and
p. Sections 0 and 9 can also exist but these are
non-standard sections.
These directories contain the files generated by the
and commands.
This file contains the summary lines of each reference page.
These directories contain reference pages to be searched by the
command when the manpath option is specified. These
directories must have the same organization and
format as
See Alsoapropos(1), col(1), nroff(1), page(1), tbl(1), whatis(1), whereis(1),
man(7), catman(8)man(1)